


Born Under a Noon Sun

by lizznotliz



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 11:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7506043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizznotliz/pseuds/lizznotliz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey learns who her father is; Luke reflects on the time he has lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born Under a Noon Sun

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not terribly fussed about who Rey's parents are, but a friend asked me to write a Luke-Is-Rey's-Dad fic and I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out.

 She has her mother's eyes and her too-wide-but-rarely-seen smile but the rest, _oh_ , the rest is all him. She has his wind-weathered cheeks and his calloused palms and that fierce determination he carried around in his youth in an effort to Prove Himself. It's evident in the way she throws herself at training, waking before dawn every morning and growling under her breath when he stops for a break.

He wants to admonish her, hears the echoes of Obi-Wan and Yoda cautioning _patience, young one_ , but he knows he doesn't have the right. He looks at her and sees patience written in the hard stare of her eyes, the tight grip of her staff, the too-fast way she eats. Rey's been patient long enough.

 _You were born at noon_ , he wants to tell her. _The sun was high. I didn't know where you were, but I could tell it wasn't dissimilar from where I grew up. I knew you'd be fine. You were born under the sun. It would watch over you._

 _I didn't know where you_ _were_ sits on his tongue at all times and he has to swallow it away every time he speaks. _I didn't know where you_ _were_ is a roundabout way of asking for forgiveness and he's not sure he's worthy of it - not sure she'll offer it - so he swallows it over and over and over and _over_.

"My father was a Jedi," he says one night at dinner. Rey has already licked her plate clean and there's a smudge of sauce on her nose from the effort. He resists the urge to wipe it away. 

( _"Look at you, such a mess!"_ He can hear the echo of her mother's laugh bouncing off the cliffs.)

"The one who owned the lightsaber," she says, her hand falling protectively to her hip where the weapon he thought he lost with his hand is hanging. "Kylo Ren said it belonged to him."

Luke shakes his head. _It's as much your birthright as it is his_ , he thinks, but the words get buried in another wave of guilt. _I didn't know where you were_.

Sometimes at night he goes outside and tries to call forth Obi-Wan. He wants to apologize. He understands now how much easier the lie is, how much kinder it is in the short run.

Rey told him about the calendar she kept in the AT-AT, a little scratch for every day she waited for her family. He wonders, when he finally strikes up the nerve to tell her, if she's been keeping up the tally in her head ever since she left Jakku and if she'll count backwards to figure out how long he waited to say _I'm your father_.

_I didn't know where you were._

_They stole you away._

_I was the last Jedi, the most powerful man in the galaxy, and they stripped me blind._

_Do you understand?_

"You're warmer than everyone else," she tells him one afternoon. He waits for the rest, but she stays quiet.

"I don't know what that means," he admits.

"You're just... warmer," she repeats. She leans on her staff and tilts her head at him, squinting in the bright noon sun. "The General, too, but you moreso than her. You're warmer," she bites her lip, "uh, here." She balls up her fist and presses it against her chest. "What does that mean?"

 _You know what it means._ He swallows.

"What does the warmth feel like?" He asks instead. "Reach out with your--"

"Feelings, yeah, I know." She stands up straight and closes her eyes; she still has her fist pressed to her chest and she massages there a minute, like the warmth is building up to proper heat, some kind of painful warning.

He can feel the shift when the pieces slot into place, when the Force tells her what's been prickling at her skin and resting just behind her ribs ever since she climbed the stone steps. He steps forward so when she opens her eyes he's there, right there, and it feels safe to cup his desert-worn hands around her wind-weathered cheeks.

"I didn't know where you were," he whispers. "I didn't know, I didn't know."

Rey tips forward into his arms and he presses a scratchy kiss to her forehead.

"It's okay," and the words are pulled from her throat, painful but honest, and Luke knows he's forgiven whether he deserves it or not. "It's okay, Father, I found you."


End file.
